Data communication networks operate computer systems to provide various data services. The data services include internet access, media conferencing, file access, messaging, content delivery, and the like. The computer systems execute networking software to forward data packets for the data services. These computer systems increasingly use Network Function Virtualization (NFV) data processing infrastructures to execute the networking software.
The NFV Infrastructures (NFVIs) distribute the execution of the networking software across various processing cores, time cycles, memories, and I/O ports. The networking software comprises Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) that are installed, executed, and terminated as new data services are introduced and replaced. Likewise, the NFVI undergoes change as the processing cores, memories, I/O ports, and hypervisor software are also introduced and replaced. This dynamically changing NFVI environment is controlled by an NFV Management and Orchestration (MANO) data communication system.
The NFV MANO system drives the NFVI to support a various network services. For a given Network Service (NS), the NFV MANO system receives data from network operations and responsively transfers network data to the NFVI. In response to the network data, the NFVI executes the proper VNFs using the appropriate NFVI processing cores, time cycles, memories, and I/O ports to support delivery of the NS.
Unfortunately, the NFVIs do not effectively integrate general-purpose NFVI systems with hardware-trusted NFVI systems. Moreover, the general-purpose NFVI systems and the hardware-trusted NFVI systems do not efficiently share VNFs. Unfortunately, NFV MANO systems do not efficiently share VNFs across the hardware-trust boundaries in the NFVIs.